


Crimson Days: Bows & Vows

by BattleScarredRaven



Series: Crimson Days 2021 [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Crimson Days 2021, DEAR LORD THE ANGST, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:09:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29305521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BattleScarredRaven/pseuds/BattleScarredRaven
Summary: Bungie cancelled Crimson Days. Time to bring it back with some one-shot writing prompts.Prompts list taken fromhereandhere.Day 2: Vow (and Bow because I couldn't decide which one damn it.)Dallas-13willhave her vengeance against Cayde-6's killers, Zavala be damned. Ikora, while publicly siding with the Commander, quietly lends a helping hand, for she too desires revenge.
Relationships: (Are they friends if they kinda hate each other right now? Who even knows), Cayde-6 & Ikora Rey (past/mentioned), Female Guardian & Ikora Rey, Ikora Rey & Zavala (mentioned)
Series: Crimson Days 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148726
Kudos: 3





	Crimson Days: Bows & Vows

_ “ _ **_Your Bond is your vow. Well, his cloak is mine. Those Barons will all fall to my bow. And Uldren… you’ll have your head staked to a throne, Ikora. Justice will be delivered, and on black wings, I shall be its harbinger!”_ **

\- Dallas-13.

* * *

_ After Dallas-13 had stormed out of Cayde-6’s second funeral - his private funeral - with vengeance on her mind, neither of the remaining two members of the Vanguard saw her for several days, despite Ikora giving chase moments after. It was like the one-eyed raven Hunter had simply vanished off the face of the Earth. The Warlock thought she would be used to it by now - Hunters disappearing off without trace, that is - but so soon after Cayde’s passing, Ikora couldn’t help but worry. Especially with the Exo’s parting words, both threat and promise. _

_ She would eventually find Dallas one sunset, arguing with Holliday in the hangar. She only caught snippets of their debate, but the few words Ikora managed to pick out - “He has to know I’ll find  _ **_some_ ** _ way to that cursed mess of rocks!” and “I wanna see ‘im avenged, too, but I can’t just defy Zavala like you seem ‘ell bent on doin’, ‘n’ ‘sides, this girl’s taken too much of a beatin’!” - were enough for her to figure out what had happened. By the time the Warlock made her way over to the source of the commotion, the young shipwright was already buried into the guts of a ship -  _ **_Cayde’s_ ** _ ship, Ikora realised belatedly - while Dallas was leant up against mobile construction platform in a crouching position, stringing together the two massive slabs of dark metal that served as her crude, but effective, combat bow. _

_ “If you’ve come to lecture me about how ‘Guardians need to stay unified in troubled times’ or have come to try and stop me, you’d best save your breath and walk away now.” The Exo Hunter growled, not looking up from her work. “Zavala already gave me that damn speech, and if he thinks denying my-” she cut herself off with a grunt, tugging the last bit of her bowstring taut between both arms of the weapon, “-the  _ **_Queen of Hearts’_ ** _ departure is going to keep me here, well… he should know by now, we Hunters  _ **_always_ ** _ find a way. No matter how impossible.” _

_ It hurt Ikora, seeing Dallas like this. She had been with Cayde in his final moments; not her, not Zavala. And she had brought his body back, in his own ship no less. Of course she would want revenge. The Warlock, in the Hunter’s position, would have wanted to do the same thing. She had admitted as much at the private funeral. _

_ “On the contrary.” Ikora answered the Exo, outwardly calm but her honey eyes thirsting for the same vengeance the other woman sought. It was enough to get her attention, at any rate; one electric green eye looking up at her, studying her every move carefully. “I came here to offer some help.  _ **_Off_ ** _ the record.” _

_ Dallas’ hands stilled their furious work, and the Hunter rose to full height, Cayde’s old cloak billowing off her back behind her, the Warlock noted. She really meant business. _

_ “I’m listening.” She eventually answered, her tone only marginally less hostile, and full of impatience. _

_ Normally, Ikora would have torn a Guardian a new one for such an address towards her, but given their shared loss, it was understandable. Besides, Zavala would probably reprimand Dallas once she got back from the Shore anyway; the Exo didn’t need it now from her.  _

_ “I know where the Barons have most likely gone to ground.” Ikora wasted no time offering the Hunter in a hushed whisper. “253 Mathilde, where Cayde and his Six originally captured them. Near that asteroid is the highest point of the traversable part of the Tangled Shore: the High Plains. If  _ **_I_ ** _ was leading a band of barbaric cutthroats and wanted to re-establish a foothold on my old territory, that’s where I would go. But… you didn’t hear that from me.” _

_ “Right.” Dallas shot back sarcastically, slinging her bow on her back and drawing her modified Quickfang, Ravensmote, to sharpen on a whetstone drawn from the satchel on her side. “Have to maintain that illusion of unity in the face of the public, don’t we?” _

_ “Zavala is right about that much, at least. A divided Vanguard is no good for anyone, no matter what our personal feelings are right now.” Ikora sighed, shaking her head. “But… stopping a manhunt for Cayde’s killers and letting them walk free doing Traveler knows what? That’s…” The Warlock has to stop herself for a moment, emotions threatening to spill out. She felt the tears welling, and hurriedly blinked them back. “He was our friend, a  _ **_partner_ ** _. He deserves  _ **_better_ ** _.” _

_ Whetstone grated against metal extra loud, perhaps deliberately so, as Dallas’ one-eyed gaze hardened into something determined, an almost-glare at the Warlock before her. “I’ll give him better.” _

_ Coming from the Exo, Cayde’s cloak on her back, Ikora could believe this vow. She wouldn’t have dared donned that piece of fabric otherwise. Her umber eyes watched the other woman as she pivoted around and sheathed her blade, picking up a modified shotgun from the floor to inspect. _

_ “As soon as these clear out for the night, I’m gone.” Dallas declared suddenly after a lengthy silence. “If Zavala wants to fight me on this, he can either shoot me out of the sky or meet me in the damn Crucible once I’ve soaked the Shore in Scorn blood and mounted Uldren’s head on a pike on top of the Old Tower.” _

_ “How are you even getting to the Shore?” Ikora gestured with one leather gloved hand towards Cayde’s old ship. “Your own jumpship was destroyed at the Prison of Elders, and Cayde’s-” _

_ “If the  _ **_Queen of Hearts_ ** _ won’t start up, I’ll just steal one.” The other woman cut her off boldly. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” _

_ The Warlock looked at her in disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous. Zavala will quickly work out it’s you.” _

_ “Well, unless you’ve got any better ideas…” _

_ “Take my ship instead. I’ll stay out of sight for a few hours to cover for you, and it gets you out of the City sooner, rather than later.” _

_ Dallas tilted her head at Ikora, who suspected that had the Exo had any eyebrows, those would be raised, too. “I’m not against the idea, but… Why help me, Ikora?” _

_ “Because if I could,” the Warlock approached her, gently resting a hand on the sode covering the Hunter’s right shoulder, gently turning the other woman around to face her, “I would be out there with you, gunning for justice at your side. But, as much as I wish I could, I cannot, and it pains me greatly. So… I will do what I can to help you go in my stead.” _

_ The hardness in Dallas’ face seemed to melt away then, and the barest flicker of grief seemed to cross her battle-scarred face. “Well, I won’t forget it.” _

_ Ikora nodded. “Avenge him, Dallas. Avenge him, for the both of us.” _

_ Dallas shrugged Ikora’s hand from her shoulder, drawing an arrow from the ornate quiver on her back. “A token of my promise. I’d give you my bow if I didn’t need it. If I fail, it’s yours. You can even kill me with it, if you’d like.” _

_ “I don’t think that will be necessary.” The Warlock accepted the arrow, turning it this way and that, before removing her left glove and deliberately cutting herself on the palm with the arrow’s head, letting a few drops of her blood land on it before Ophiuchus popped out to heal her. “Here. Save this one for when you find that son-of-a-bitch and put him down.” _

_ Dallas took the arrow back from her, returning it to her quiver. “As your Bond is your vow, so this is mine.” _

_ Ikora shared one last look with the Hunter, before glancing at her Ghost. “Ophiuchus, transmat Dallas to my ship and give her full access.” _

_ The dark-shelled Ghost’s optic flickered briefly, and soft transmat light whisked Dallas away. Seconds later, the distinct iridescent purple-bronze and white ship that was  _ **_Ikora’s Resolve_ ** _ was hurtling its way out of the hangar and the City, and on its way to the Tangled Shore. Ikora’s eyes tracked it until she could no longer see it above the high, wispy clouds in the darkening sky. _

_ “Carry the Light, Dallas, and deliver swift retribution.” She whispered fiercely to the cool, dusky night. “Do what I myself cannot.” _

_ Silence filled the hangar after the roar of jumpship engines had long left it as the workers finally downed tools and went home, leaving Ikora in the hangar alone. _

_ And, for the first time in a long while, she truly felt so, too. _


End file.
